Ultra 4 unresponsive after 10 minutes case#18114989

Well what a life sapping experience dealing with Netgear technical support is! The NAS keeps crashing and last night it somehow managed to 'mislay' 1.3Tb of data. I say mislay because the share is empty but the NAS is reporting 1.4TB (24%) used. Over the last four days I have sent four sets of logs, answered innumerable emails, swapped cables, switches and tried umpteen configuration changes at their request. They refuse to RMA the unit as they say it is a "network problem" despite the fact there are 22 other machines on that network including an NV, Qnap, two plug computers, two Popcornours, Hard Drive's and various PC's all of which are functioning perfectly. I estimate I have spent about 15 hours trying to sort this problem at the request of support and this morning they say they want more logs. This is a 10 month old £500 consumer device not a state of the art computational engine and a genuine caring Customer service orientated company would simply replace it. In fact I had a problem with a £200 Logitech Harmony remote control a few months ago and their service was superb - a three minute phone call, huge apologies and a new unit sent out immediately ("you can keep the old one sir"). That is the 'Gold Standard' Netgear, not living in denial that your boxes cannot possibly go wrong. I reckon it is a hardware problem either by a failing component or poor design which makes it susceptible to some form of network glitch, but then it has not complained after being connected to that same network for the last 10 months. This is life with a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 at the moment (without backup's, music, photos or video's obviously):



I have been a ReadyNAS user and Forum member since 2006, been involved in memory testing, been through the Fan and PSU issues and have generally supported ReadyNAS products whenever I can. But this is dismal beyond belief. I have been without a functioning Ultra since last weekend so even if support agree to replace the unit it will be at least another week before I am up and running again. Time, I think, to do what my increasing circle of watching colleagues are suggesting - "Go out and buy a Qnap and move the disks across, life is too short".

What happened to you guys? - you used to be so good. :?